Seventeen hospitals even saw the number of MRSA infections rise during this period, he said.

"What we've said to the government is: this is a postcode lottery," Mr Butler told politics.co.uk.

"There is no evidence for people having any information that's freely accessible to tell them what their local hospital trust infection rates are.

"People can't make a choice if they don't have all the information before them."

Statistics are only available for MRSA infections, which only account for six per cent of all healthcare infections. The remainder come from other causes like surgical site infections, wound infections and those from catheters.